


magic's just science we don't understand

by isloremipsumafterall (orphan_account)



Category: Thor (Movies)
Genre: F/F, Femslash February, Femslash February Trope Bingo, Supernatural Elements
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-26
Updated: 2016-02-26
Packaged: 2018-05-23 08:44:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,758
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6111199
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/isloremipsumafterall
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jane rents a house to study unusual readings in an area that could relate to her theory of Einstein-Rosen bridges and no matter what Darcy says the house is not, and never will be, haunted. (the curious warrior woman who appears has a perfectly reasonable explanation set in science, Jane is sure of that)</p>
            </blockquote>





	magic's just science we don't understand

“Well this place is definitely haunted. Just like the realtor said and you can’t seriously expect to live here Jane.” Darcy’s voice echoed in the beaten down home but when she looked around Jane was nowhere to be seen. She stared up at the ceiling with a sigh, “If you’ve taken her already then be ready to hear science lectures for the rest of your eternity.”

 

“Who are you talking to Darcy?” Jane asked, stepping back into the room.

 

“Oh thank god, the ghosts haven’t gotten you. Yet.” Darcy emphasized, throwing her arms up to gesture at the house around them.

 

“This place is perfect.” Jane assured her, “And you’re not staying here anyway.”

 

“No but when I get back from my class I’d like to have a job and a professor to come back to.” Darcy sighed, “If you become a ghost don’t haunt me Jane.”

 

Jane made a face at her, rolling her eyes and ignoring Darcy continually going on about the house being haunted. With the budget she’d been given for her project the house was all she could afford, and it was technically the closest to the areas of magnetism she needed to study for her wormhole theory.

 

Darcy left the house with a solemn clap on Jane’s shoulder and another ‘don’t die before I get back’ and then she was off, back to the States to finish a class that she had to take for a semester and Jane would miss her in the four months without her and especially her help lugging around the equipment.

 

Her first night there was just tinkering with the equipment to make sure it had been set up right to get the right readings and data.

 

She’d been so engrossed in it she didn’t notice that her tablet pen to help her jot stuff down was right next to her where she needed it to be instead of tucked away in her bag. She didn’t think anything of it when she fell asleep on the couch that night and there was a blanket on her – chalking it up to she must have been more tired than she thought and groggily standing to go make coffee.

 

Jane shut her eyes as she took a sip of her coffee, opening them again slowly and then she jumped, the coffee cup tumbling from her hand as she gaped at the reflection in the mirror of a woman standing behind her.

 

“Please don’t be real,” Jane muttered and turned around slowly. The woman was still there, albeit nearly translucent. She towered over Jane, her long black hair – for that it wasn’t real, Jane reminded herself – was silky and tied in a loose pony tail, and her hazel eyes regarded Jane with something close to disdain.

 

“Do you not seek to run away now?” The woman asked, her voice slightly accented in something Jane couldn’t place.

 

“Well you’re not real sooooo…” Jane took another sip of her coffee and walked away.

 

She didn’t hear footsteps behind her but the woman followed her anyway, frowning.

 

“You are not like most mortals.”

 

“Oh good, ‘mortals’,” Jane snorted at, dropping onto the couch, “When I wake up I’m going to laugh at that.”

 

“You are awake.” The woman stated, tilting her head, “Is the consumption of your beverage not enough to show you that.”

 

Jane paused her next sip, looking up and the woman and squinting.

 

“Did Darcy put you up to this?”

 

The woman solemnly shook her head.

 

Jane hummed and with one hand reached out in front of her, watching as it passed through the other woman.

 

“Refrain from doing that,” The woman gritted her teeth, “It is not pleasant.”

 

Jane blinked, pulling her hand back and then did the only thing she could do given the situation – sought an answer.

 

“There has to be a scientific explanation for this.”

 

~~

 

“I assure you there is no science that brought me to existence on this plane.” The woman – Sif she had introduced herself after a sigh- stated, “It was the treachery of Loki.”

 

Jane’s brow furrowed as she studied the electromagnetic pulses coming from Sif with her machines, scribbling notes down furious.

 

“Are you even listening?” Sif demanded and Jane glanced over at her, grinning slightly.

 

“Yeah, yeah. ‘Magic’.” She put the word in air quotes, making Sif look at her strangely, “Magic’s just something that science hasn’t explained yet.”

 

“Does nothing deter you from that? Not even the proof you are awake and I stand before you?” Sif sighed.

 

“Nope,” Jane continued to grin. “Because I believe in fact, not fiction.”

 

“You are very strange.” Sif told her, crossing her arms and regarding Jane again, “Do you not wish to tell the other mortals of my presence? Most who see me babble on to others about me.”

 

Jane shrugged, “If I’m awake and see you I have to take it to mean you’re real. And since you’re real you’re not a ghost.”

 

“I assure you I am not.” Sif looked offended by that, “I am an Asgardian who was placed in the limbo between your worlds by the trickster Loki. I have already explained this to you.”

 

Jane sighed and put her pencil down, feeling like she wasn’t going to get any proper answers unless she actually listened this time.

 

“Tell me again.” She perched her chin on her hand, elbow on her knee and looked at Sif.

 

“Very well,” Sif didn’t look happy but launched into the tale regardless, “About fifty of your years ago I traveled to your Earth with Loki to see if you Midgardian’s were ready to meet us. When we discovered this newly built house Loki’s idea was to see their reactions to us and as such placed a spell that trapped me in this limbo. I can be seen and heard by your kind but not touched and if I focus can affect your primitive objects into movement. It is what caused the legend of my being a ‘ghost’ creature yet when I went to walk out of the house I found I could not and Loki was nowhere to be seen.”

 

Sif looked furious, slamming her hand on the desk and it jerked slightly beneath her but made no sound, “Should I ever see that snake again I will rip his spine from his body to suffer as I have.”

 

Jane ignored the violent threat to frown in concern, “You’re suffering?”

 

Sif wavered a little, her shoulders falling slightly, “I have been without companionship or food or drink for fifty years. Even for an Asgardian lifespan that is a lonely existence.”

 

Jane glanced down at her data she’d been assembling and swallowed hard, she reached over where Sif’s hand still rested on the table and awkwardly tried to place hers over it without slipping through it.

 

“I’ll fix this,” Jane told her, “There’s got to be something that can.”

 

Sif stared at her for a minute before inclining her head, “You will have my everlasting gratitude if you can.”

 

Jane smiled at her and then pulled her hand away, turning to go back to the data she was compiling and muttering about procedures and tests that could be tried. She missed the way Sif was still staring at her with a little curiosity and gratitude all at once.

 

~~

 

“You require a break.” Sif told her, crossing her arms.

 

“What?” Jane’s head shot up from where it had dropped and she had nearly fallen asleep on her work.

 

“You require sustenance and a break.” Sif repeated and Jane got the feeling that if she didn’t move to do so Sif would just continue talking about it.

 

“All right,” Jane stood with a stretch and yawned, walking into the kitchen and just grabbing the cereal. She took it to the table and sat down in the chair with a heavy plonk, beginning to eat when she noticed Sif was just standing there. “You know it’s a little uncomfortable to eat with you looming.”

 

“I do not loom,” Sif muttered but stepped through the table to take a seat at the chair. “Is this better?”

 

“I guess,” Jane shrugged, taking another bite of cereal and then tapping her fingers on the table. “So you don’t get hungry then?”

 

Sif shook her head, “I haven’t felt hunger or the need to drink or sleep since this spell-”

 

“Not a spell,” Jane muttered.

 

“-was cast on me,” Sif continued like she hadn’t said anything.

 

“There has to be a reason for that too,” Jane said, finishing her cereal and leaning back in her chair, “Something causing you to be retained in a form, like a reflection of yourself…”

 

“A spell.” Sif replied, tilting her head with a smirk when Jane shot her a look.

 

Jane would have argued more but she broke into another yawn and was having trouble keeping her eyes open.

 

“Sleep now, Miss Foster,” Sif told her, “Solve things tomorrow.”

 

“I can solve things in my sleep.” Jane murmured stubbornly but walked away to get ready for bed anyway.

 

~~

 

A week later and Jane had concluded her preliminary tests were done.

 

“You’re what’s causing the strange magnetism of this place.” She stated, scribbling more notes down.

 

“If you say so.” Sif just shrugged.

 

“If there was a way to release the pull of it…” Jane muttered, off in her own thoughts. Sif snorted in amusement and walked out of the room, walking back with a cup of coffee for her.

 

Jane took it with a mumbled thanks and turned back to work as Sif began pacing the room.

 

As she went to take another sip Jane stopped, looking at the cup in consideration.

 

“You can hold objects if you focus but you can’t touch me.” She said out loud, trying to draw a hypothesis from there. She scrambled up and went outside, digging in the dirt and bringing a plant back inside and holding it up to Sif. “Touch this.”

 

Sif raised an eyebrow coolly but did as instructed, attempting to touch the plant. Her hand phased through it like Jane thought it might.

 

“Living matter can’t be affected by you directly.” Jane hummed, walking out to set the plant down again and scurrying inside to wash her hands and add that data to things she had already compiled.

 

“Tis a shame,” Sif said when she came back in room, “I’ve been told I’m quite skilled with my touch as I am on the battlefield.”

 

Jane nodded her head absentmindedly before catching what Sif had actually said.

 

“Wait, what?” She turned towards Sif who merely smiled at her and didn’t answer so she looked back towards her notes. “You know I came here looking for evidence of Einstein-Rosen bridges, I didn’t think I’d be trying to bring someone back from another plane.”

 

“Yet you’ve been very accommodating as such.” Sif commented lightly, taking a seat in the chair across from the couch, “You’ve accepted I am a Norse figure-”

 

“Alien.” Jane muttered, “Possibility through living in another space and time by the process of an Einstein-Rosen bridge…”

 

“-and I am trapped here. Though not under a spell.”

 

“Reflection of some sort.” Jane insisted. “There’s a plausible explanation for this.”

 

“Not all things in this universe need one.”

 

“But they have one anyway.” Jane told her and Sif shook her head.

 

“You are very stubborn.” Sif smiled at her, “But I appreciate it and when all this is done I will show you my gratitude.”

 

“That’s…” Jane blinked, wondering what Sif meant by that, “You don’t have to do that.”

 

Sif merely shrugged and that ended that conversation and Jane went back to looking into how to bring Sif back to their plane of existence.

 

~~

 

“This could hurt.” Jane warned and Sif straightened, looking mildly insulted.

 

“I am one of Asgards finest warriors, I will not be deterred by a little pain.” Sif insisted.

 

“If you say so…” Jane still winced as she turned her machine on, making herself watch what would happen as Sif cried out in surprise. She went to turn it off but Sif shot out a hand to stop her, catching Jane’s wrist.

 

They both stared at the contact in surprise.

 

“It’s working.” Sif said in wonderment and excitement, catching Jane’s eyes and grinning widely, “You’ve done it Miss Foster.”

 

“Jane,” She corrected and laughed and the sudden absurdness of the situation, the past few weeks truly hitting her in that she was bringing someone back from another plane. Realm as Sif would call it.

 

“Jane,” Sif repeated, her eyes softening and she looked at Jane with fondness.

 

“This could just be temporary,” Jane babbled, tearing her eyes away from Sif and towards the machine, ignoring the warmth from Sif’s hand that still rested on her wrist. “The waves may not be enough to counteract the pull that’s keeping you there and-”

 

Before she could say anything else Sif blinked and stepped back and there was a shaking around them as something hit the ground in a brilliant flash of colours.

 

When Jane finally had blinked away the dots of light in her eyes there was a hole in roof, Sif was gone, and her hand felt unusually cold.

 

~~

 

Eric came to get her that night, looking up at the hole in the roof and back to Jane.

 

“The university won’t be happy about this,” He told her, patting her on the shoulder, “But did you get answers?”

 

Jane looked over her notes miserably and shrugged, “I’m not sure what I got.”

 

With Sif’s disappearance the magnetic charge in the air was gone too and all the data she’d recovered couldn’t be replicated.

 

She left the house in silence, packing up her things and letting Eric take her to a hotel.

 

“You can stay at my place,” He’d offered, since he was taking a semester of teaching at the local university he had rented a house too, but Jane shook her head, wanting some time alone to collect her thoughts.

 

“I know you were real,” She muttered, looking over her records. “I have scientific proof you were real.”

 

She looked around the room of her hotel, somewhat expecting Sif to show up and make a joke about magic indifference to Jane’s thoughts.

 

Nothing was there however and Jane threw the sheets in her hand down in anger. “Science doesn’t lie.” She told the air, frowning.

 

Her wrist still felt unusually cold and she rubbed at it with a sigh, wondering if what she had done had cost Sif her life instead of saving her after all.

 

~~

 

“Jane,” The voice calling her name was accompanied by the shaking of her shoulder, “Jane.” They repeated and Jane groaned, opening her eyes and then jerking up when she Sif standing there.

 

“Sif?” She scrambled out of bed and poked the taller woman in the arm, “You’re all right, and you’re solid. So it worked then,” Her eyes lit up in excitement, “This means that I was right.”

 

“Yes Jane,” Sif chuckled and smiled at her, “You were right.”

 

“You’re not a ghost.”

 

“I am something not human.” Sif replied, evading Jane’s hunt for the truth easily with a shrug and Jane huffed in response. “I was returned to Asgard by Heimdall who came to see me after you had broken through the veil.”

 

“Magnetism.” Jane insisted, willfully ignoring the other things Sif had said.

 

“Spell.” Sif stated, making Jane roll her eyes.

 

Sif reached out to catch Jane’s wrist, warm and alive, and Jane smiled softly.

 

“I believe I owe you some gratitude for breaking the spell.”

 

Jane would have corrected her again if not for Sif leaning down and stealing her breath with a kiss.

 

“I could get used to gratitude for proving a hypothesis.” Jane said, grinning when Sif pulled back. She looked up at the unusual woman, “Are you staying?”

 

“Now that I can return anytime I like, for a time yes.” Sif smirked, “I can correct you on your thoughts though for a Midgardian they are quite brilliant.”

 

She could tell Sif was teasing her, “Good. Now tell me about how you traveled to your world.” Jane pounced on the idea, “It’s a bridge isn’t it?”

 

She caught Sif’s smile again before the warrior leaned down to kiss her once more.

 

“Does your mind ever stop, Jane?”

 

“Never.” Jane said but tugged Sif’s hand to pull her down again, “But I can be distracted for a time.”

 

Sif looked like she was more than ready to meet that challenge, grinning and meeting Jane halfway.

 

 


End file.
